Industries such as insurance and financial services are under constant pressure to reach new customers. Many companies are eager to help their sales agents with business leads, since their business is critically dependent on the revenue generated from new retail customers. In this context, certain data providers are starting to provide name lists via fax or the Internet. However, the leads provided by these data providers are usually of poor quality, and they are not under proper management control.
In the former case, for example, the leads usually do not match well with the population that is likely to purchase a target product. Such leads are typically used in mass mailing campaigns to accommodate the low success rates associated with them. Mass campaigns with low quality leads are especially costly and ineffective for products designed to meet specific niche market needs. AS industries move towards targeted marketing with niche products, it becomes even more important to be able to identify high quality leads for specific products.
In the latter case, moreover, it is likely that a lead is pursued by multiple agents at the same time for the same product. This is undesirable, however, since it typically confuses and irritates a potential customer, resulting in a negative impression about the company by the prospect. It also reduces each agent's success rate with the leads when multiple agents compete for the same lead.